Game Design: Types of Multiplayer Games

Types of Multiplayer Games

Simplest way to create a competitive game mode to make players take turns playing the single-player game and declare the player who does the best to be the winner.
Example: Super Mario Brothers on the SNES
Another method is to split the screen so that both players play the single-player mode a the same time.
Drawbacks:
- There are no interactions between the players.
- Offers a competitive mode, but usually not as fun.

Creates interactions between players that provides each player with a game play experience that is dependent on their opponent.
This is usually achieved by setting the game play within a shared environment and providing competing goals.
Example: The Tank Game.
A shared environment is not necessary: You could create a split screen Super Rainbow Reef that included power-up bricks that affected the opposing players' starfish or shell.
This would make each player's experience dependent on the other other.

If players' skills aren't equally matched the game stops being fun for both players rather quickly.
Many competitive games include features to rebalance the competition.
Examples: handicaps settings, weaker characters, hidden catch-up mechanisms, losing player given extra power ups.
So people don't like competition.

Players are allowed to work towards the same goal, but they are not required to work together or interact with each other to achieve it.
Example: Wingman Sam
One of the most practical ways of including cooperation into your games because each player can survive on their own if another player dies.
Most arcade games work this way (You would be upset if your character died (and you lost your 50 cents) because your buddy is a newb).

This type of multiplayer game encourages players to interact or collaborate in order to achieve the game's goals rather than just both being on the same side.
Give each player different roles or skills within the game.
Example: In Wingman Sam we could make on player control a slow bomber with lots of forward firepower, while the other player has a smaller fighter plane with excellent maneuverability.
The players ar forced to find collaborative strategies that utilize their own strengths and weakness to complete the game goals.
Drawbacks:
- Most players will not naturally know how to collaborative effectively in your game.
- You will need to create cooperative training levels that encourage cooperation.

Most multiplayer games do NOT fall neatly into one category.
Cooperative games turn competitive for a while when a health pick up appears on the screen (who is going to get it first).
Competitive games often involve a set of unwritten rules that players cooperate.
Even Wingman Sam encourages collaboration when one player is about to die, as this ends the game.

No one wants to play a multiplayer games that causes them to lose unfairly.
Players need to feel that multiplayer games give them as much a chance as winning as other players.
However, this is often not an easy task.